Mouser-in-Chief 30 April 2011

Larry, the 10 Downing Street cat, sits on the Cabinet table wearing a Union Flag bow tie ahead of the street party to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Hopefully Larry won’t need to catch any rats during the street party [AFP / GETTY]

I tried to fnd a still shot of the verger who did cartwheels down the red carpet in Westminster Cathedral… Larry is a good runner up however. I say put him in charge of everything.

Did anyone catch the military uniform worn by Harry? Epaulets, stand-up collar and gold swag that managed to look heavy. And lots of it. Obviously, faded empire has too much in common with lunatic tin pot dictators.

Deaths from overwork are so common in Chinese factories that they have a word for it: guolaosi. China Daily estimates that 600,000 people are killed this way every year, mostly making goods for us. Li had never experienced any health problems, his family says, until he started this work schedule; Foxconn say he died of asthma and his death had nothing to do with them. The night Li died, yet another Foxconn worker committed suicide – the tenth this year.

For two decades now, you and I have shopped until Chinese workers dropped. Business has bragged about the joys of the China Price. They have been less keen for us to see the Human Price. KYE Systems Corp run a typical factory in Donguan in southern mainland China, and one of their biggest clients is Microsoft – so in 2009 the US National Labour Committee sent Chinese investigators undercover there. On the first day a teenage worker whispered to them: “We are like prisoners here.”

The staff work and live in giant factory-cities that they almost never leave. Each room sleeps 10 workers, and each dorm houses 5,000. There are no showers; they are given a sponge to clean themselves with. A typical shift begins at 7.45am and ends at 10.55pm. Workers must report to their stations 15 minutes ahead of schedule for a military-style drill: “Everybody, attention! Face left! Face right!” Once they begin, they are strictly forbidden from talking, listening to music, or going to the lavatory. Anybody who breaks this rule is screamed at and made to clean the lavatories as punishment. Then it’s back to the dorm.

It’s the human equivalent of battery farming. One worker said: “My job is to put rubber pads on the base of each computer mouse … This is a mind-numbing job. I am basically repeating the same motion over and over for over 12 hours a day.” At a nearby Meitai factory, which made keyboards for Microsoft, a worker said: “We’re really livestock and shouldn’t be called workers.” They are even banned from making their own food, or having sex. They live off the gruel and slop they are required to buy from the canteen, except on Fridays, when they are given a small chicken leg and foot “to symbolise their improving life”.

An epic rebellion has now begun in China against this abuse – and it is beginning to succeed. Across 126,000 Chinese factories, workers have refused to live like this any more. Wildcat unions have sprung up, organised by text message, demanding higher wages, a humane work environment, and the right to organise freely. Millions of young workers across the country are blockading their factories and chanting, “There are no human rights here!” and, “We want freedom!” The suicides were a rebellion of despair; this is a rebellion of hope.

Last year, the Chinese dictatorship was so panicked by the widespread uprisings that it prepared an extraordinary step forward. It drafted a new labour law that would allow workers to form and elect their own trade unions. It would plant seeds of democracy across China’s workplaces. Western corporations lobbied very hard against it, saying it would create a “negative investment environment” – by which they mean smaller profits. Western governments obediently backed the corporations and opposed freedom and democracy for Chinese workers. So the law was whittled down and democracy stripped out.

It wasn’t enough. This year Chinese workers have risen even harder to demand a fair share of the prosperity they create. Now company after company is making massive concessions: pay rises of over 60 per cent are being conceded. Even more crucially, officials in Guandong province, the manufacturing heartland of the country, have announced that they are seriously considering allowing workers to elect their own representatives to carry out collective bargaining after all.

Just like last time, Western corporations and governments are lobbying frantically against this – and to keep the millions of Yan Lis stuck at their assembly lines into the 35th hour.

This isn’t a distant struggle: you are at its heart, whether you like it or not. There is an electrical extension cord running from your laptop and mobile and games console to the people like Yan Li and Liu Pan dying to make them. So you have to make a choice. You can passively let the corporations and governments speak for you in trying to beat these people back into semi-servitude – or you can side with the organisations here that support their cry for freedom, like No Sweat, or the TUC’s international wing, by donating to them, or volunteering for their campaigns.

Yes, if this struggle succeeds, it will mean that we will have to pay a little more for some products, in exchange for the freedom and the lives of people like Yan Li and Liu Pan. But previous generations have made that choice. After slavery was abolished in 1833, Britain’s GDP fell by 10 percent – but they knew that cheap goods and fat profits made from flogging people until they broke were not worth having. Do we?

I don’t know of it is true or not, but I read that one reason Chinese labor factories are moving back from the coast, to much deepr inland (away from Shanghai for one) is the work and labor protests and desire for unions and so on had been growing.

So much of the millions who labor had come from the interior of China, in hopes of a job, that they are now being told they can go back home and get jobs closer to wehre their families are.

There are certain things I cannot stop myself from doing, smoking horrible deadly cigarettes and posting from time to time on these blogs, in particular. Two horrible habits I often regret. BUT, greetings and salutations to all. Anyway over at rigorousintuition there is a mass revolt of the not really so many female contributors.. so i told them to come here. Just a heads up.

I did not realise Rig Int was back up. There seemed to be about a year or so, months at least between posts… I will go take a look! I used to love “incandescent cuttlefish’s” comments in particular over there…

rigint is crazy’r’n the proverbial shithouse rat, but torrents of information, waaaaay too much to for lil ol me to wade thru. I think i, cuttlefish is long gone. Go to ‘general discussion’ , the;site is not well organized.

Anyroad really loving it in the eu, although the global crackdown is rolling along here too. You cant even buy drugs in the subways anymore, its terrible.. And a couple days ago some poor english schook was beaten to death at a disco in hamburg for no apparent reason by i think five turkish bouncers. The terror, if allowed to use that word, of the racism here is matched only by its pointlessness and stupidity.

But its like the wild west and pretty sweet if you’ve got the appetite, lots of colorful characters most of whom speak german which is another problem. Im thinking best get married or start selling artwork.

[O]n Tuesday, Senator Bernie Sanders office released a CRS report titled “Banks Play Shell Game with Taxpayer Dollars” that sheds a bit light on the shady ways the Fed conducts its business. Sanders “found numerous instances during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 [2009 belongs to Obby! – Mcat] when banks took near zero-interest funds from the Federal Reserve and then loaned money back to the federal government on sweetheart terms for the banks.”

So, now we have irrefutable proof that the Fed was simply handing out money to the banks. More importantly, the report shows that this was not just a few isolated incidents, but a pattern of abuse that increased as the needs of the banks became more pressing. In other words, giving away money became policy. Is it any wonder why the Fed has fought so ferociously to prevent an audit of its books?

From Sander’s report: “The banks pocketed interest on government securities that paid rates up to 12 times greater than the Fed’s rock bottom interest charges, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis conducted for Sanders.”

Are you kidding me; 12 times more than what the Fed was getting in return?

Thanks! 🙂 I really think of my love-hate relationship with advertising and “feminine” trappings as being the guiding principle there. And let’s face it, that shit IS damn disturbing all by itself.

So much great collage on flickr from all over the world. I try not to get too intimidated… 🙂

If you’d like to own a card, I can probably get it to you for just the cost of postage. (I’d feel terrible cutting too deeply into anyone’s smokes budget. 😀 ) Just look for whatever’s tagged “unsold” and let me know.

(Regarding Painkillers: …after all, what good is the Power To Abuse, when one’s victim is able to numb the abuse, with no ill consequences (i.e. the stigmatism of smoking or drinking cheap brew, or, the illegality of, ….say: Heroin for one, now INDUSTRIALIZED THOROUGHLY … in Afghanistan) ….couldn’t have that, could we?)

to that of smoking cigarettes, versus those Cigars, which actually warrant smoking tents at $Green$ $State$ Capitols for $Green$ Nazi Governors with fleets of $Green$ HUMVEES ….(and no, wouldn’t doubt it at all if Jerry ROTC Brown imbibes on either cigars, pipe, or, GASP, ciggies.)

though pipe, is the first thing that comes to my mind …not bong, …but a properly austere version of a Mearshaum (I’m pretty sure I spelled that incorrectly) …not to say mr ROTC doesn’t imbibe with the illegals ….in safe, comradic, surroundings with DIFI …et al …..

well we work the whole repression, ban, make illegal but control the illegal supply thing, we have it down pat.

Even the NYT, which I quote ad nauseum on this, reported that previously no large numbers of poppy were ever refined in country. Vry soon after we arrived, refining began right next to the “largest US base”. Which I would guess is Bagram.

Three years ago, when a phenomenal 92 % of global heroin (and other derivatives) was coming out of Afghanistan, based on a UN report, it was widely reported thru out the world. Newspaper after newspaper, site after site. HEAVILY reported in the European capitals about to be hit with it…

well we work the whole repression, ban, make illegal but control the illegal supply thing, we have it down pat.

YEP, YEP …

Three years ago, when a phenomenal 92 % of global heroin (and other derivatives) was coming out of Afghanistan, based on a UN report, it was widely reported thru out the world. Newspaper after newspaper, site after site. HEAVILY reported in the European capitals about to be hit with it…

About the only time you can get enough pain medication is when you are dying. Even tho there is legislation, at least in Cali, that is supposed to ensure medical response to pain.

I can say they ask, over and over, in the hospital if you are in pain. I remember when they did not do that. There was also time when they acted like morphine did not exist. NOW they admit it exists adn they even like using it. Clean, leaves the body, kills pain, promotes calm and even people like me (inside an allergy storm often) have no problem with it…

Oh and cheap. All the opiates are…

Too many prescribing treating doctors, outside of hospitals, believe anti depressants cure everything. Not only depression (whatever that really is, a wider spectrum than most doctors admit to) but stress and pain.

Good luck iwth that.

One of the things they are going after is how FL, in particular, dispenses Oxycodone and Oxycontin… not sure why entirely. Maybe the cheap hallucinogenic Night Train and the like bottled alcohol are complaining.

I had a dear friend with lung cancer, who had wonderful Hospice, with plenty morphine, at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA …now those fuckers, UPMC, are tring to destroy West Penn (if they haven’t already?) …

(and yeah there is an ugly side to the Morphine Industry but that doesn’t negate it’s use when it’s actually needed to relieve someone of unbearable pain)

for one, I know a woman, who was addicted to Heroin who went to one of Pittsburgh’s drug addiction clinics, and one of the fuckers working there, basically used morphine’s highly addictive qualities to make her life an absolute nightmare.

for another, I can’t speak to it much, it has something to do with a hideous temporary assignment I did one time (was escorted out the door when I didn’t sign on to the program …some truly nasty shit).

I’m just saying that there is an ugly side, not at all disagreeing with your premise of legality …

(and ..well, have to say that I don’t believe anyone is free of lifelong addictions, of some sort, …and I could be totally wrong there, …knee jerk gut instinct, is not necessarily logical, but everyone has at least one gut instinct that they can’t ever prove…yet will never shake off …….sigh? ;0( ;0) )

but it is made a thousand, 10 tousand times worse by illegality. There is an ugly side to alcohol too… and one ER doc, long ago, told me he sees nothing that is worse or more destructive than alcohol addiction. that it is horrific…

So………. which is why I say, the makers and purveyors of Night Train want to keep drugs illegal. Even poor old MJ.

Not that legalisation is some cure-all dream. It is not.

One of the drugs i am on, a type of diuretic which was decided on as I don’t have classic water retention bloat, but apparently retain the salt then drink a lot of liquids to keep the salt hydrated, was making so ill so nauseous, that I, who intensely dislike MJ, don’t much like th eculture (but unlike JOan Baez, I could never flush anyone’s stash!, LOL) had me on the internet looking up how to get a MJ card. I wuz desperate.

Wow, what a fcking freakin’ mess. And one, but just ONE, of the big problems is WHERE the dispensaries are located. Pretty much bad parts of town. Which may just be the three block stretch the disp is in the middle of. I did not relish a cab ride alone to the one that was said to dispnse the best edibles.

Someone nearly snapped at me that that is no different frm how it always was….. Well I beg to differ. I may not ever have used MJ but I bought it often enough as gifts to other people and twice when I went to Texas in the late 70s I took it with me (boy, those days are O V E R)…. the last time was a Xmas gift for friends in the late 90s.

Each and every time I would jsut call a friend who was a consumer, ask if they would take me to their dealer. All was perfectly fine. I was never some where odd or out of place in my life, never afraid… but as I went with a trusted buyer I also did not hve go thru the ritual of smoking some (I’d have keeled over, frankly)… it was clear I was not DEA or the law or anybody like that…

O yeah alchohol addiction: NASTY ….
LIVER CANCER: …..NASTY …(and who the fuck, in their right mind, ….. wants to be JR? …or Jobs, ..for that matter?)
the PROFITS OFF OF IT: …..NASTY.

What can one say about JOAN, ….. never call ME GRANDMA!!!! ..or I’ll emotionally punish you…granddaughter. I thought Joan Didion did an excellent, years ago piece on her…

So sorry hon about the med dillemna …never cared for the lite smokeables (never done the hard ones …never cared for any of them …do have a taste for some nice cognac ), MJ,or Hashish, myself ….though loved, the pungent whiff of hashish.

I do have to admit, I’ve flushed stash brought into my ‘home’ when I felt threatened …(alchohol in that case), and would likely do it in someone I cared for’s home front if it seemed like it might prevent catastrophe.

oh I just couldn’t do it. I’d simply leave, if I could. Are you talking about imminent over dose or something?

I also cannot see what ”catastrophe” is involved in MJ.

Well JB was iirc estranged from her son for some years. Who knows. Joan Didion cracked up, imo, in the wake of the death of her husband and daughter. Became some proto-Catholic and wrote a piece for the NYRof Books that made righties so fuckig happy, about Schiavo, down in Pinellas FL, that whole mess during the 2004 election cycle.

I dragged myself thru her entire article in NYRofBooks and was horrified.

yeah ..the imminent, check out thing ..one never really knows of course what they will actually do …until they get there …but It seems it would be pretty hard to walk away and let it happen … for me. I’ve known too many who’ve tried, and say they are glad they didn’t succeed ….that’s just my reality ….

I’m not surprised at all Joan is overwhelmed after all of that death ….mom..husband..daughter ….in a flash …not gonna make a call on that one …I really appreciated much of her writing prior to that, haven’t read anything of hers past that.

She validated that Schiavo was not brain dead. Well in her mind she validated it. Of course the autopsy showed something very different. As had many many testifying doctors as the damned thing worked itself thru years in the courts, all kept on fire by the totally loco parents and sister.

I just cannot – could not – hand the crazed right wing that sort of thing, esp if wrong! from a supposed long time opponent of the RW.

I don’t see what is so bad (”Don’t call me Grandma…” etc) about the small interview with JB. She spends time iwth the grandchild, which is what matters.

I re-read that article and attacked myself, asking myself the same question about what disturbed me about the grandma thing….I think for me, my first response is that she made such a crime of aging/greying ..for just one thing, when many of the elderly do not have that opportunity ($$$$$$), and certainly not the energy after a lifelong struggle, to appear as youthful as she does … there’s more there but I’d like to express it better thatn what’s flitting across my mind…so maybe I’ll revisit it.

but yeah for starters, what’s actually wrong with the word grandma, when that’s what she is? ..older, not as fresh looking physically, but presumeably wiser?

(must go do some errands I’ve been meaning to do all day, will check back…)

Sorry I cannot see anything wrong with it. It is just an opinion. And pretty harmless as well. peoiple dislike being pigeon-holed, which is what I see in taht.

Not some massive embrace of a major right wing operation, run as part of the quadrennial madness we all live with. Esp when you, as Didion did, made a point of supposedly opposing all fo that for 60+ years.

Hell Annie the photog and Susan the writer NEVER officialy acknolweged their lesbian relationship. Even after Susan’s death… So what. People have different ideas on what constitutes their own privacy.

But I am sure there are ‘societal issues PC cops’ who think they cut the gay world dead, publicly, by never having discussions and rountables on what it all means.

My irk about the grandma comment was no more of an irk than your remark about Joan Baez flushing Dylan’s stash, to my mind …..so I’m a bit confused about the hypocrisy implying comparison of myself with Joan Didion , ….or the comment about “Annie” and “Susan” , if that was somehow meant to be related to my ‘post’? ;0( …just saying …and yeah I’ll take a long break, and think about it more, I’m not that much of an ass to think I don’t have blind spots, but I don’t believe your analogy, about my “grandma” comment: when you, as Didion did, made a point of supposedly opposing all fo that for 60+ years, was valid hon., any more than if I had made a similar analogy about your opposition to the stash toss. ;0(

Oh…I think I understand , at least I hope I do …..I’ve used that collective “you,” myself, right “here,” …and then,…. yeah, ….turned around and wondered as to whether someone had taken it as a personal “you” ……for the lack of the up front signals: eye contact, timbre, body language, sound track, scent ……unfiltered by technology ………I really do despise “the web” (yet ..find it, last ditch effort useful many times (despite its intended use), now that we’re stuck with it …..)

I was referring to JD and others like her, who have relied on the left, left of center, for sales for decades. Kind of like Susan Sarandon, who had no problem with Leviev diamonds (promotional gifts to her), even when many individuals and groups reached out to her, also privately, to please not give publicity in exchange for diamonds to Leviev. Appearing at his store parties and promotional events. Not just an Israeli, but a big time settlement promoters.

She ignored them. But has made bucks and bucks for years, off cultivating a “left” audience.

Same with Jane Fonda and whatshisname. Happy to be guests of Israel even as they were waging wars, like on Lebanon.

I get you on Didion …outside of the family deaths …(I couldn’t stomach reading or listening, to either “side” ……it should have been private to my mind), Fucking Goldwater? But I have to admit she really fuckin nailed some “liberal” BULLSHIT …just like ROn Paul does, …but I fucking despise his buck up, everyone not white or male, White Male Fiscal Policies,…..outside of blowing up the Federal Reserve …..

well, I didn’t read her after that, didn’t want to witness that pain, so can’t offer my opinion, though I will say there was nastiness on every side I partially read, re: the when someone should die issue, one of the ironies for me is that so many that think a plug should be pulled, are the ones who want to stay alive forever …and be forever young, when it’s impossible. …Me? …think I’ll opt for the least physicaly painful, take me out, I don’t want to burden anyone, nor be humiliated with diapers,…and yet …I fear…our government could easily make that into a reason fro mass slayings …what the fuck to do?

(yeah, I did say I have to run jeesh, someday I’ll empty the fuckin garbage …stage whatever …sigh ….;0) ….)

The housing bust horror flick is now giving way to a very unwelcome sequel: a big squeeze on the cost of renting.

The number of renters paying more than half of their income towards rent has hit record levels, according to a new study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) of Harvard University.

Rental affordability is a critical issue for seniors, who live on fixed incomes and already are coping with low yields on their savings, fast-rising healthcare expenses and stagnant Social Security benefits. Yet the struggle with affordability is found most often among low-income Americans; JCHS found that 75 percent of renters in the lowest quartile of income are spending more than half of their income on housing. JCHS also found that lower-middle class renters also are having trouble finding affordable rental housing.

For example, 33 percent of renters with annual income of $14,500 to $30,000 are facing “severe burdens” in finding affordable rent. And the problem is growing most rapidly among demographic groups traditionally less likely to have affordability problems, including younger households, married couples with children and renters with some college education.

“These are astounding numbers,” says Eric Belsky, managing director of JCHS. “If you are spending half of your income on housing, you have very little to spend on everything else.”

The problem stems from a mismatch of supply and demand of affordable rental housing in the wake of the housing crash. The recession pushed up vacancy rates, and depressed rents, property values and new multi-family unit construction. Meanwhile, the foreclosure crisis has sparked a substantial increase in the number of former owners who now need to rent — just at a moment when development of new affordable housing units has stalled:

The other thing that got squeezed in the bubble boom years was land long used for residential trailer parks. And, quite a few scooped up, at least the early steps of running off in many cases elderly residents, thanks to Kelo, just before Big Fat Bubble fucking burst.

So.

At Thursday's debate, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended their Medicare for All plan. They faced criticism from several rivals, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, who described it as a "bad idea," and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who claimed the bill shows Sanders and Warren do not "trust the American people."

At the third presidential primary debate in Houston, Texas, senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Warren also spoke about her stance on U.S. trade policy and how "our trade policy in America has been broken for decades."

After being questioned about the crisis in Venezuela, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his vision of democratic socialism. "I agree with what goes on in Canada and in Scandinavia: guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on Earth not to provide paid family and medical le […]

Debate moderator Jorge Ramos of Univision grilled former Vice President Joe Biden over the Obama administration's deportation record. Biden refused to answer whether he did anything to prevent Obama from deporting a record 3 million people.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Friday demanded internal emails, detailed financial information and other company records from top executives of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Alphabet Inc's Google, widening the antitrust probe of Big Tech.

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration's decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate.

A lawyer for former FBI official Andrew McCabe pressed U.S. prosecutors on Friday to drop their politically sensitive case against him, citing reports that suggest they may be having trouble securing criminal charges.

Media

from Howl

I'm with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma
by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the
roof they've come to drop angelic bombs the
hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse
O skinny legions run outside O starry
spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is
here O victory forget your underwear we're free
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night

October 7 1955

"a remarkable collection of angelson one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure

Democrats…

Same as goddam fucking forever.
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.